Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Yogi Bhajan: All American Guru

File under: Backroom Gurudom and The Siddhi of PR

This week in Washington marks the celebration of a joint resolution passed in Congress honoring the late YogiBhajan, according to a couple of Indian news sites. The momentous occasion seems to have escaped the attention of the U.S. media so far. Passed last April and sponsored by New Mexico Senator Tom Udall, Yogi Bhajan is now in the esteemed company of Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II as a religious leader honored this way by Congress.

When we originally noted the passage of the resolution, we joked about Tom Udall's black tongue—made so by all the shoe-licking we imagined he did to get the bill passed. What escaped us at the time was the fact that it was passed unanimously in both the House and Senate. This extraordinary show of cross-cultural recognition and ecumenicalism across the political divide is astonishing in light of the current climate in Washington, one seemingly dominated by neoconservative wackadoos making plans to hang with Jesus after the Apocalypse.

Sure, Yogi Bhajan was an American success story. He arrived as an immigrant, launched a number of thrivingbusinesses and became an influential community and spiritual leader. His organization even weathered a few scandals, just a bit of sex, drugs and guns. Just enough to make him seem that much more American.

But the idea that Yogi Bhajan could be honored by a unanimously-passed resolution is vexing. We can't decide if this is a good sign or a harbinger of darker days to come. What could have prompted the contentious U.S. Congress to all agree to honor a foreigner and promoter of a religious ideology other than Christianity? Are politicians expanding their religious base beyond the mainstream, or is there something far more sinister going down? Was this a chance to enjoy some bipartisan harmony by honoring a beloved spiritual figure (and help some politicians from New Mexico,) or are these the first signs of Amma's mammary influence ahead of her arrival in North America? We'll let you know as soon as we know.

3 Comments:

Eh, it's not so strange, considering that YB was one hell of an enterpreneur, and there's practically nothing more American than that. Yogi Tea, Peace Cereal, the cottage industry of white clothing and other "enlightened" accessories for yuppies who want to improve themselves. Then there's his whole "women from venus/ men from mars" bullshit humanology beliefs (including ambiguousity about gay sex and a fairly no-no attitude about non-manogamous sex) that are a couple steps left of the conservative right.

Sorry to get to this so late. I just found your blog. I was raised in the 3HO community that Yogi Bhajan founded and led. He was a defacto charismatic leader. He ordered his devotees to do some very damaging and detrimental things like child swapping and sending young children off to India alone without their parents. He advocated child abuse and physically and verbally abused his students. He claimed to have psychic powers. He told people that if they left they would wind up homeless drug addict prostitutes. I can go on and on. For more accounts of my personal experiences, you can go to my blog at http://www.indiakids.blogspot.com.

Do not trust what Sikhnet has to say, because it just caters to the nonsense that he shoved down everyone's throat. You will not find anything on all his wrongdoings, you'll just find a bunch of blind followers who have bastardized the Sikh religion.

Yogi Tea and Peace Cereal are funded by Akal Security a nationwide private security corporation that even is willing to bid on US government contracts in Iraq!

.... An appropriate name for your blog could have been Neti Neti.— Rama

While we understand that gurus are held sacred by many, they
are also public figures deserving of scrutiny. Our primary aim
is to inject a little humor into what can be an excessively
self-righteous enterprise, and to illustrate the primary truth that
no matter how divine their devotees believe them to be, gurus
poop on the same pot we do.